Adelaide, Dec 5: If you ever thought cricket had seen every imaginable way for a match to be abandoned, the WBBL just politely disagreed. At the Karen Rolton Oval in Adelaide, a perfectly normal game between the Adelaide Strikers and Hobart Hurricanes spiralled into slapstick chaos when—of all things—a ball rolled under a pitch and drilled itself into the wicket like a rogue meteor.
It all began during the innings break, when Adelaide’s Amanda-Jade Wellington casually threw a ball during fielding practice. That ball, clearly harbouring Olympic-level ambition, made a beeline for the giant pitch trundling across the square. One crunch later, it was lodged inside the pitch like a potato in a tailpipe, leaving behind a neat little crater that rendered the surface about as playable as the moon.
Curators poked it, rolled it, scraped it, coaxed it, probably whispered sweet nothings at it—but the wedge refused to vanish. With Hobart waiting to begin their chase and the pitch looking like it had been attacked by a woodpecker, officials had no choice but to abandon the match. (Agencies)
